Scrutinized Supreme Court faces challenging term on employment cases

The U.S. Supreme Court opened its new term facing a challenging docket and a distrustful public. The most watched cases all require the Court to more fully articulate the boundaries, if any, of its precedential ruling in Trump v. US, giving the president untrammeled authority over the executive branch, including the unrestricted right to terminate all  executive appointees.

Supreme executive power or a check on the president’s authority?

The most important of these cases will review the Supreme Court’s precedent in Humphrey’s Executor v. U.S., (1935) which held that members of quasi-legislative or quasi-judicial bodies created by Congress may not be removed except for cause. Both National Labor Relations Board (NLR) Member Gwynne Wilcox and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter were summarily fired by the president, despite statutory language requiring “cause” and providing procedural protections. Only Slaughter’s case is before the Court, but the decision will affect all political appointees to executive agencies. (Chief Justice John Roberts issued an administrative stay on Wilcox’s case, barring her from returning to her job pending the adjudication of her matter.)